Showmance
by kcollinsp
Summary: Future! AU Klaine where they never met in high school, and now both live in New York. Kurt is an up and coming stage actor, well known in the Broadway community, who is cast in a new musical in which Blaine is the music director. Kurt is immediately drawn to Blaine, but they both have some baggage to deal with. M for eventual smut.
1. Chapter 1

It was only his first day and Kurt was already running late. Freshly brewed mocha in hand, Kurt made his way up 9th as fast as he could manage in his new leather loafers. His watch read 11:20,which meant he was already five minutes late, and he still had a few blocks to go. The last thing Kurt wanted to be known as was a diva, so he prided himself on a great reputation regarding promptness and attitude, aware of the rumors that could follow a person in such a small community; therefore, he was not particularly pleased about the events that had led him to entering Alvin Ailey Studios ten minutes later than he was expected for his first vocal rehearsal. He had just been cast in "Outliers", a new musical by Michael Allen Spencer, directed by Grant Poe, and produced by Grier McKenzie, all of whom have great connections in the business.

As Kurt reached the door to Studio 8, he could distinctly hear his cast mates going through vocal warm-ups, led by a man who must be their music director. He was going to stay and listen for a while, wanting to evaluate the talent of the other cast members, until he realized that he was supposed to be in there with them, and promptly opened the door, trying to draw as little attention to himself as possible. As soon as the door opened, though, all occupants turned to look at him, faces ranging from excitement to annoyance to disgust, all except for the man at the piano who had continued his scale, while concentrating on other sheet music in front of him. Hearing that the other had stopped singing with such fervor as previously, he looked up questioningly at what would possibly be distracting them. Kurt could only focus on the curly mop of black hair slowly turning up to look at him, revealing one of the most gorgeous faces he had ever seen, and with the business he works in, that's saying a lot. Beautiful hazel orbs stared back at him, and though Kurt tried to look away, he couldn't help but be entranced by the man.

"Kurt Hummel?" the beautiful man asked with a hint of annoyance, the tone of his voice jolting Kurt out of his trance and making him realize that there were about twenty or so of his cast mates staring intently at him, immediately making him regress slightly in embarrassment.

"Yes," Kurt answered with as much confidence as he could muster, willing his voice to stay even as he stared back at the man.

"You're late," the man said bluntly before turning back to the sheet music in front of him, feigning indifference.

"Yes, I'm sorry," Kurt responded, still facing the man, a little annoyed that he was almost ignoring him. Kurt was not an egotistical person, well considering his profession, but he would've liked more than three seconds of this man's attention. He did have a good excuse, but this man just didn't seem to care.

When Kurt didn't move, the man looked back up, his eyebrow raised in question.

"Are you going to warm up with everyone else or do you like to do that separately, too?"

Kurt's cheeks were immediately stained pink with embarrassment and anger at the man's words.

"I rehearse with everyone else," Kurt stated proudly, then adding, "I'm sure you wouldn't know about it though being on such a high horse," dripping with sass. Both of the man's eyebrows shot up in question, surprised at the answer. But he was never one to be out-witted, especially at _his_ rehearsal, so he quickly shot back, "I'm sorry Mr. Hummel, but who was the one who arrived late this morning?"

Kurt's mouth opened slightly in surprise, but he quickly closed it, trying to hide his reaction. Before Kurt could answer with a quip, the man spoke again, "That's what I thought."

Kurt could see a subtle smirk on the man's face, making him resent him even more. In Kurt's attempt to spare as much of his dignity as possible, he used one last retort: he walks over to the front of the piano, drops his satchel, stands up straight, and runs through a scale with near-perfect pitch, all the while staring into the man's eyes, while effectively impressing everyone in the room, trying to cover up his desperation to impress the man with a confident façade. Kurt happily notices that the man is impressed and raises his eyebrow, "You gonna play?"

The corners of the man's lips turn up slightly and he proceeds to lead the group through a few more warm-ups occasionally looking around, but mostly keeping his eyes on the countertenor standing front and center.

xxxxxxxxxx

After rehearsal, Kurt spent a little more time than necessary talking to his cast mates and packing his bag, waiting for Mr. Beautiful Witty Music Director, as he liked to call him, to stop looking at his damn sheet music and come talk to him, but that didn't seem to be happening any time soon, much to Kurt's chagrin. Finally, after ten minutes of excruciatingly dull talks and quick glances to the beautiful man, Kurt gave up and exited the studio, rounding the corner and reaching the lobby, before suddenly realizing that he had forgotten a piece of music, internally cursing himself for spending five minutes to slowly pack up his stuff and then forget something. He quickly turned on his heel with a small huff under his breath and made his way back to the studio, hoping that he had left the sheet in an obvious place so he wouldn't have to go looking for it, or worse, giving Mr. Beautiful Witty Music Director another reason to be angry with him by asking for a new one. Kurt was worrying about his predicament so much that he didn't even notice someone opening the door to come out of the studio as he tried to walk in, resulting in a head-on collision between Kurt and the aforementioned man of his affections. As Kurt looked up to see who had run into him, his anger and frustration was immediately overcome by an indefinable feeling of happiness combined with anxiousness and a touch of hopefulness. As he stared into the honey orbs, he smiled a bit, and for what seemed like the first time that day, the man smiled back at him widely, showing his perfectly straight and whitened teeth.

"I'm sorry," they both began to say at the same time, blushing a bit.

"Here," Kurt said as he broke eye contact and began to shuffle papers around, helping pick them up.

"Thanks," the man said quietly as they once again made eye contact and Kurt handed the papers over to him. After a few seconds of silence, Kurt said as coolly as possible, "Um, I just realized that I never got your name."

The man laughed a bit, showing his pearly white teeth again, "That must've been covered in the first ten minutes of rehearsal," he teased, just making Kurt further admire his wit. "Blaine Anderson," the man said, sticking out his hand to be shaken.

"Kurt," Kurt immediately responded, holding onto Blaine's hand a little longer than necessary. The dark-haired man laughed again, causing Kurt to blush a bit—god he hasn't been this pink since high school—and ask, "What?"

"I know."

Kurt blushes, remembering their earlier interaction, "Oh. Right."

"You seemed in a hurry before. Were you looking for something?" Blaine asked as he moved to his feet, though never taking his eyes off of Kurt.

"Oh, yes," Kurt says, suddenly remembering his forgotten sheet music, "I just, I think I forgot something in the room," he stutters, trying to be vague and avoid having to tell Blaine about his lost music.

"Specific," Blaine laughs with a smirk and a glint of something in his eye.

Kurt laughs awkwardly, as Blaine opens his bag and begins to search through the papers the two men had just picked up. After standing there silently for a few seconds, Kurt is increasingly curious. Blaine finally pulls out what he had been looking for—a piece of sheet music.

"Are you looking for this?" Blaine asks, a teasing look on his gorgeous face.

Kurt's eyes go a little wide when he realizes what Blaine has in his hand, and does his best to save as much face as possible. He could always just copy the music from one of his new cast mates; that would be much less painful than potentially making his crush angry or even giving him the satisfaction—all Kurt wants to do is wipe the smug smirk off of the man's face.

"Oh, no, um, yah I have all my music, I was actually looking for something else," Kurt explains, desperately hoping that Blaine can't pick up on his terrible lying ability.

"Hmmm, okay," Blaine says nodding his head suspiciously, "That's funny though because it says 'Property of Kurt Hummel' on a label in the right corner, but that must be someone else, right?" Blaine smiles, biting his lip, trying to hold in his laughter, while Kurt blushes furiously, internally chastising himself for being so organized.

"Oh," is all Kurt manages, and takes the paper from Blaine, who is still smiling, which Kurt takes as a good sign, "I'm usually not this bad."

"Oh?" Blaine asks with a raised eyebrow, "I don't know what you mean."

Kurt rolls his eyes and continues, "The arriving late, the forgetting stuff, it's not me, I mean, it's not what I usually do." Blaine doesn't answer, so Kurt continues to babble, "I mean, I know how a reputation can follow someone in this business and I like to think I'm a good person, and so when I walked in late, I wasn't trying to be a diva or anything like that, I mean, I had a reason and—"

"Kurt," Blaine finally cut him off, amused by the man's rambling, "Kurt, it's okay. I'm not mad."

Kurt looks up at Blaine and takes a sigh of relief, "Oh. Good. That's good," he says, stuffing the piece of paper into his satchel nervously.

"Are you always this flustered?" Blaine asks, making Kurt even more angry that he can be so calm and collected while Kurt is bouncing all over the place.

"No," Kurt laughs awkwardly, "just first-day jitters, I guess."

"Oh, okay," Blaine reaches his arm out and touches Kurt's shoulder, sending shots of electricity down his body, making him wonder if Blaine can feel them, too; if he does, though, he doesn't let on. "You're amazing, don't be nervous. They all eat you up in there." Blaine smiles assuringly before giving a head nod, patting Kurt twice on the shoulder and backing up and situating his bag back over his shoulder. "See you tomorrow," the shorter man says as he begins to walk away, before turning around one last time to tease Kurt, "10:30. But you may want to aim for 10:15, seeing as you have a reputation for tardiness."

Kurt just sticks out his tongue jokingly in response as he watches his beautiful, witty music director walk down the hallway and round the corner until he is out of sight.

He breathes out a long sigh and leans up against the wall, bringing his right hand to rub at his temples, evaluating and over-analyzing the interaction, and how he probably acted the most dumb a person could act when trying to impress a guy. He knew that he has been a little desperate for connection after his break-up with Jeff, but he didn't think that it's gotten to the point of becoming a blushing schoolboy and being unable to form a coherent sentence without babbling. It was something about Blaine—Blaine, he liked that name a lot, it's pretentious without sounding arrogant, unique but not too outlandish; it seem to fit the man perfectly—something that Kurt couldn't quite put his finger on, but whatever that something was, it drew Kurt to Blaine like a mosquito to a florescent lamp.

But, soon, Kurt's logic kicked into his internal monologue, reprimanding him for his foolish and completely unprofessional behavior—he didn't even know if the man was gay; of course, he was pretty sure seeing as he dressed impeccably and he was in this business, but Kurt had learned early on, never to assume anything. As he made his way out of the studio and walked down 9th towards his apartment, he couldn't help but picture he and Blaine standing together on opening night, in their beautifully cut tuxes, smiling at each other and stealing a kiss here and there.

_Woah_, Kurt thought to himself_, you're bordering on creepy now, don't get ahead of yourself._

It was surely going to be a long rehearsal process.

**A/N: Hey y'all, here's my new story! I'm not exactly sure how long it's going to be yet, but I'm planning on at least 15 chapters, maybe, depending on how long I make them: in short, Kurt and Blaine have quite a journey ahead of them. Comments and reviews make me happy! Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: So I actually posted the first chapter of this story last summer, thinking it would be a thing that I would regularly update…clearly I did not think ahead that far. But I loved the story and love what I generally have planned and I wanted to come back to it. I've been so busy with "Lean on Me" (check it out if you haven't) that I didn't even think to write for this. But here it is…the second of many. I promise to be better about updating this…especially because LOM is almost done. Okay…I think that's all I have to say. Oh, and also review please! It really helps with motivation, it's essentially the reason why I came back to this at all. **

"Good day, Mr. Hummel."

"Thanks Geoffrey, you too!" Kurt yells as he speeds by his doorman, carrying a pomegranate smoothie from Juice Generation, half of a mozzarella, tomato, basil sandwich, his cell phone open to his most recent instagram post, and his sunglasses. He hits the elevator call button with his right elbow and bends down to take a sip from the straw of the smoothie. Tapping his foot and humming along to one of the newest songs he learned in rehearsal today, he huffs out a sigh of relief when the door to the elevator finally opens and takes him to the 9th floor of his apartment building.

He should've known he was playing with disaster. As he turned his arm out of habit, to look at his watch, his smoothie tumbled to the ground, sending large amounts of the pink liquid throughout the elevator and causing Kurt to drop his phone, amidst the surprise, into the pool of pomegranate fruit juice.

"God fucking fuck."

He quickly bent down to retrieve his phone, wiping off the juice as best he could at the moment, grateful when the doors finally opened onto his floor. He quickly made his way down the hall, fishing his keys out of the side pocket of his satchel. Once inside, he quickly called down to the concierge, informing him of this mishap so he was not alarmed when the elevator arrived downstairs a distinctly different color than he had left it.

During the conversation, he caught some of the juice staining his shirt, and tried to control his inner panic attack until he got off the phone. Taking his shirt off and running into his room to find the bleach, he was more than a little surprised when he heard the voice behind him.

"Hey babe, that was quick."

"Jesus fuck, you scared me." Kurt says after jumping at hearing the noise.

"Tense today?"

Kurt rolls his eyes and huffs, turning back around to walk to the laundry room. "I dropped my smoothie in the elevator."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why'd you drop your smoothie?"

He could tell Ben was teasing him. "I don't know why the fuck I dropped my smoothie, it's not like I did it on purpose."

"God, calm down, I can make you a smoothie right now."

Kurt sighs, bending down and fishing the Tide out of the cabinet and pouring it around the stain on his shirt, "It's not the same."

"You really are being a bitch today."

"I'm tired."

"Well yah you had to wake up at 10:30 on a Saturday. Who does that?"

"The business I work in is not a 9 to 5 job."

Kurt feels arms encircling his waist as the smell of Ben's body wash overwhelms him. "I'm just saying, either way, I could've made it a much better morning," he says, taking Kurt's earlobe into his mouth and teasing it with his tongue.

Kurt finishes scrubbing the shirt and pushes Ben away slightly with his ass so that he can turn around and walk back into his bedroom. "You were dead to the world. I don't think you were going to be helping anyone."

Ben smirked and then ran after Kurt into the bedroom, tackling him onto the bed and mock-biting his neck, licking him all over, making him laugh. "Stop, stop."

"You don't sound very convincing," finally coming to straddle Kurt.

Kurt just rolled his eyes, smiling this time though, and pushed the older man away from him, getting up and walking to the kitchen.

"About that smoothie you promised…"

xxxxxxx

Kurt was nothing but punctual the next day to rehearsal. As he walked through the lobby he was elated to see that the giant clock said 10:10—even earlier than Blaine had teasingly suggested. He greeted the few people that he knew on the way up to Studio 8, daring himself to hope that he'd maybe have the studio to himself for a few minutes just to do a some pre-warm ups.

When he heard music coming from the Studio, though, music that was a part of his show, he was even more excited: Beautiful Stranger—Blaine—Blaine would be here. He stops right before he reaches the door, peeking into the window, almost swooning at the sight.

Blaine is wearing a tight maroon Henley, tight jeans rolled up at the cuff, and classic light brown Sperrys, sitting on the piano bench, pencil adorably placed between his lips. He's playing a variation of one of the songs that the cast learned yesterday, it's faster and with a more complex piano part than he had remembered. Blaine stops playing for a moment, an excited look on his face, and scribbles down something onto the lined paper on the top of the piano.

This man clearly loves what he does. Kurt smiles to himself at the revelation; he never realized how exciting it is to watch a person do what they love, what they were meant to do.

"Stalker."

Kurt jumps at the voice and turns around. Once he realizes who he is he can't help but smile and maintain the dirty look he was trying so hard to keep on his face.

"Alfie. Hello."

"Who're you looking at?"

"No one…I, uh, was just checking if there was anyone in there."

Alfie studied him for a moment. The two had known each other for years; they met about halfway through their second semester at NYADA when Kurt had to take a ballet class for a musical theatre requirement that Alfie happened to be a TA for. He knew him better than Kurt would care to admit.

"You're a good actor, Kurt, but you're a horrible liar," and with that, Alfie nudged him out of the way to look into the room.

"It's not like I blame you. He's super cute…You should go for it."

"Alfie! I'm in a relationship…" Kurt said, not sounding convincing in the least.

"Please. You don't know what to call it. Sleeping with your roommate is not a relationship."

"It could be…"

Kurt moved to the window standing next to Alfie, the both of them watching the curly haired man.

"Does Ben think it's a relationship?"

Kurt paused, causing Alfie to turn to him and raise an eyebrow in question.

"We haven't had that conversation yet."

Aflie huffed out a sigh. "Kurt…you know I love you. You know I just want you to be happy, but I honestly think that he's leading you on…or you're just leading yourself on."

"I'm not the same young naïve kid that I was in college."

"I know, Kurt, I know." Alfie turned away from the window and grabbed his backpack, patting Kurt on the back before opening the door to the studio, causing Blaine to look up and make eye contact with Kurt through the doorway, Kurt quickly looking away and picking up his bag.

When he turned back to walk through the door he was, once again, met by the enigmatic hazel eyes.

"Hi, Kurt." He was smiling. His smile is fantastic. God his lips are so pretty.

"Hi, Blaine."

"Hi, Alfie," he heard Alfie say to himself in the corner, causing Blaine to break out into an even bigger smile—jeez, he's so attractive—and repeat "Hi, Alfie" back to the other man.

"Oh, hi Blaine," Alfie teased, "Didn't see you there. How silly of me! What're you doing here so early?" Alfie looked over to Kurt and had a glint of something in his eye that Kurt didn't trust in the least; he was quite worried about whatever was about to come out of Alfie's mouth next.

"Just some adjusting…nothing too interesting," Blaine smiled, going back to sit down at the piano bench.

"Reeally? That's funny. The way Kurt was peaking in the window made me think that you were doing brain surgery."

Kurt's face paled and his eyes went wide, sending one of his best bitch glares Alfie's way, though it didn't seem to be working at all.

"Was he?" Blaine teased. God, Kurt hated both of these boys—that's what they were, immature boys—right now.

That moment, four loud ensemble members came into the room, thankfully diffusing the momentary tension. Kurt used the distraction to his advantage, moving over to the side of the room, putting his bag down and searching through the pages in it, taking more time than necessary to find his sheet music, and then killing more time by "organizing" it. He looked up every now and then to monitor Blaine, but the other man just seemed to be playing around on the keys, making quick conversation with a few people when they came to ask him a question or flirt with him. Kurt couldn't help the pang of jealousy that came with the last thought.

Once it started, the rehearsal went on without a hitch, and Kurt did his best to just blend into the background when he wasn't singing his solos—he often found that it was better not to come on strong, to wait until he met everyone properly to be overly loud or talkative.

When rehearsal was over, Kurt, once again, killed time by riffling through his papers and making a show of putting them all the same way, and filing them neatly into his bag.

"You coming?" Kurt heard Alfie ask from behind him.

"Nah, I'll be out in a second."

Alfie just gave him a knowing look and chuckled to himself, running over to walk out with Gavin. Kurt watched them walked out and then went back to shoving all of the papers into his bag, standing up and patting down his jeans, before picking up his satchel and turning around, seeing that he and Blaine were the only ones left in the room. The man was plonking out chords, clearly just messing around, his music already put away in the backpack sitting next to the piano.

Kurt walked over slowly, standing behind Blaine, watching him silently, smiling to himself. Blaine then turned around to look at Kurt, smiling.

"What's up?"

"Do you wanna go get coffee?" Kurt blurted out, quickly realizing his slip and covering his mouth with his hand, desperately wishing he could take that back.

"Um…"


End file.
